1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a character shielding-preventive pointer instrument for automotive gauges, and more particularly, to such a pointer instrument in which a polarizer film having permeability or non-permeability characteristics selectively depending on whether electric power is applied thereto or not is attached to a pointer needle.
2. Background of the Related Art
In general, an automotive vehicle includes various gauges or meters mounted on an instrument panel constituting the front surface of an instrument cluster. Pointer-type gauges are widely used for speedometers, RPM tachometers, temperature gauges, fuel gauges, etc.
In general, a pointer needle is rotatably mounted at a pointer shaft installed at the center of a character plate so as to rotate about the point shaft above the character plate having a scale and characters thereon. The pointer needle rotates by means of a step motor mounted below the character plate, and controlled by a micro computer.
For night driving, the pointer needle may receive light from an LED to emit light according to the manipulation of a combination switch. The character plate also typically receives light from the LED to cause the scale and the characters to emit light.
However, when the pointer needle continuously indicates a specific character, a front end portion of the pointer needle shields the character, which makes it difficult for a driver to read the character.
Due to this problem, there have been many restrictions in the thickness of the pointer needle or the character position of the gauge apparatus and so forth when designing a pointer.